Question for Any Gnome Extension(s) Users

Greetings lovely Endeavour community,

I’ll try to make this not super long! Been using Gnome for years (big fan) and every major Gnome update always brings new changes, and extensions may or may not be updated in time of a new Gnome release. A general rule I’ve noticed is that typically an extension that I use will either be updated (or not updated but still functional), upon a new Gnome release or most usually become updated to support the latest Gnome version in about 1-3 months after the latest Gnome release when they become usable and stable again. More or less that headache hasn’t been too bad over the years, a minor inconvenience where I usually just remain patient, sometimes I’ll reach out to the extension devs github/lab and see if there’s any progress or not. It’s a hit or miss really, some extension devs are active and some have moved on or stopped all together.

So my question is specifically towards only the Gnome users in here that actively use a handful or a dozen or more extensions in their Gnome setup. I’d like to know your overall experience with using your Gnome extensions and being on a rolling release that inevitably breaks your extensions. Is it quite common? Or quite minor issue for you? Is it a big deal breaker or no when an extension no longer works? Do you ever hold back from updating to keep the extensions working? Feel free to answer in any topic around that. Usually a Gnome update is not too bad, but I know Gnome 40 has changed a lot and not all extensions have been updated (ie Dash to Dock being the main big one not updated yet). Feel free to answer as much as you like, there’s no wrong answer of course, I’d just like to hear Gnome users opinions on the matter. Thanks for reading this and looking forward to reading any replies!

Well, I would say that it’s a minor problem. I usually try editing the metadata.json for extensions that don’t work first–about 50% of the time the extension works after that…if not, I reach out to the extension dev with information about the problem. Really, the last update gave me 3 extensions that did not work & 2 of them worked after adding

    "shell-version": [
      "3.38",
      "40.beta",
      "40"
    ],

to the metadata.json. I then contacted the dev(s) for those extensions & reported that the extension worked.

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As far as Endeavour OS being a rolling release, I don’t think I’ve had many issues that I would blame on the rolling release model nor on how current Endeavour OS. I also tend to use the testing repositories so I am getting my rolling changes pretty quickly.

I think the Gnome 40 release carried a signification amount of change for extensions developers. I find that most extension developers are quick to release updated versions, but the more complex the extension the more effort that can be required to update it for the next shell version.

Finally, if you are waiting for an extension to be updated you can always clone the repository and updated the extension or create your own version. I ended up creating the Espresso extension as a fork from the Caffeine extension solely because I wasn’t getting any response from the Caffeine maintainers and it didn’t look like they would be supporting Gnome 40 any time soon.

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Caffeine < Espresso < Staying Awake…it all makes sense now :stuck_out_tongue:
I’ve used Manjaro for a year back in 2015, but that was on Xfce, so for a rolling release model I didn’t have to worry about extensions, but my time on Solus, their rolling release model is pretty current for Gnome, so every 6 months or so a few of my extensions would have an issue. You’re right to say it’s not a big issue, I am just curious what others think about the matter.

@ExDebianuser I haven’t come across the need yet to edit an extensions .json data, but if I do I am aware that that is one thing that I can try to possible get an extension to work, so thanks very much mate for sharing that :wink:

I thought that it would be good info to have on the forum. I am in contact with several Gnome devs & that is a “recommended” first check. I have had a couple of extensions not work that way, but after a couple of times the session will start with ALL extensions disabled, so you can just disable the offending one & restart normally.

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I don’t know if it plays a part on Extensions, but do you default to Wayland or Xorg for your Gnome session I wonder?

Extensions break every time GNOME releases an update. Every. Time.

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How often does Gnome update, or is it just with major updates like 3.38 - 40.0 ?

While I understand what you’re saying and do agree with you to a certain degree, not all extensions break for every Gnome release. Some extensions alter code so minor that any change Gnome does won’t affect it. Case in point a have a few extensions that I still find useful that haven’t seen updates in years. I try as often as I can to use current and frequently updated extensions, but sometimes that is not always the case. I just want to make it clear to others that updates only break some extensions not all. Gnome 40 requires extensions to include version 40 in their json file, otherwise you can’t install it on Gnome 40, so while technically that’s not breaking it, it is holding it back until the maintainer updates their extensions.

The few outdated extensions I use are:
Toggle Mute on Middle Click
Permanent Notifications
AlternateTab

Every 6 months.

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https://wiki.gnome.org/Schedule

Gnome updates every six months or so (generally on March and September) for major updates and within those six months Gnome will put out minor bug fixes or security fixes to the major update.

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Thanks @dalto , @Scotty_Trees

Still thinking about giving it a try, I like Dash to Dock on 3.38 when i tried it and one other popular menu extension that i can’t remember the name of lol.

Any Telemetry in Gnome?

Sorry I have no idea. Maybe try asking that over in the Gnome subreddit and see if they have anything to say; I did a quick search of the topic there and didn’t see anything posted about it, so I’d suggest giving that a try - https://www.reddit.com/r/gnome/

Now this is just a theory, but IF they did have any telemetry data, it would probably be akin to what Ubuntu data collects, i.e. let the user choose to opt-in or opt-out and if they opt-in it really only collects your machines hardware. If you’re slightly curious about that, there’s a lovely article about it here - https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2018/05/this-is-the-data-ubuntu-collects-about-your-system

Hope that helps ya a little bit!

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Sure. That’s not what I was saying.

The point I was making is that some but not necessarily all extensions breaking after a GNOME version update is a very (very) common occurrence.

This is a historical fact, and there are plenty of threads all over various fora about some but not necessarily all broken extensions after every GNOME version update.

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I only use a few extensions but the all work or had replacements for gnome 40.

supposedly they are trying to make it easier for extension devs but as i am not a dev I don’t know if what Gnome said and does have actually helped.
https://blogs.gnome.org/shell-dev/2021/03/12/gnome-40-your-extension/

Caffeine - broke, moved to Espresso
panel scroll
Sound Input & Output Device Chooser
Unite
Window is Ready - Notification Remover
Auto Move Windows
User Themes

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